Publisher and developer Bethesda Game Studios rings in the season by giving its settlement management simulator, Fallout Shelter, an official Christmas update.

When Fallout Shelter was initially launched, Bethesda and its fans simply believed that it would be a nice complimentary free-to-play game that would support the launch of Fallout 4, but lo and behold, it went on to become the most played game in the post-apocalyptic franchise, garnering upwards of 4 billion play sessions. With this being the case, Bethesda has continually updated the mobile and PC settlement management simulation title since its inception, with the most recent batch of goodies being brought to Fallout Shelter including holiday cheer in a Christmas update.

As Bethesda explained in a recent tweet, its developers have given Fallout Shelter a yuletide makeover filled with new decorations, outfits, and quests that reflect the Christmas spirit. Of course, with it being themed around the particular holiday season, these updates are only going to be available for a limited time, but the company did not reveal how long they would be active.

By the looks of the screenshot below, Fallout Shelter has plenty in the way of festive arrangements, with there being Santa hats draped on the corner of Nuka Cola machines, paper snowflakes hanging from the ceiling, elf costumes for characters, wreaths adorning the walls, and decked out Christmas trees. Plus, if fans look closely enough, one of the televisions in the Vault even seems to be playing the Christmas classic film, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.

As many fans of Fallout Shelter are certainly well-aware, the settlement management simulation game is no stranger to updates related to the holidays. As a matter of fact, Bethesda has celebrated Thanksgiving by adding turkeys to the game, as well as pilgrim outfits for Vault Dwellers to wear. Fallout Shelter has even received spookier updates in the past with the studio adding Halloween decorations to the Vault.

This Christmas event for Fallout Shelter is merely the latest piece of content offered to fans from Bethesda's team of developers. As it happens, the studio has continued to provide ample support for the free-to-play game by adding a rather robust update just a few months ago that incorporated features like new quests, rewards, and faction-based room themes.

Taking all of this into consideration, it's obvious that the success of Fallout Shelter has inspired Bethesda to back the game for as long as possible with fun and often gratifying updates. Undoubtedly, the solid amount of work put into Fallout Shelter has led to plenty of positive reception from fans and lucrative returns for the studio, which has incentivized Bethesda to make more mobile games. Beyond that, though, we will likely see more holiday events added to Fallout Shelter for the foreseeable future.

Fallout Shelter is available now for Android and iOS devices, as well as PC.